State threatens to shut down disability center amid patient abuse

Story by

Ryan Gabrielson

The state's largest board-and-care center for the severely disabled lost its primary license to operate today, after repeatedly exposing patients to abuse and shoddy medical care.

State regulators cited the Sonoma Developmental Center, which houses more than 500 patients, for dozens of cases where patients were put at risk of injury or death. In issuing the citations, the state moved to shut down a major portion of the century-old institution.

The action comes after a series of stories this year from California Watch documenting failures by the Office of Protective Services, an internal police force established specifically to protect and serve patients at these board-and-care centers. The police force has failed to perform basic tasks associated with crime investigations. In particular, the Sonoma center had evidence of a dozen sexual assaults but police investigators failed to order a single hospital-supervised examination for the alleged victims. Those reported assaults represent a third of the 36 documented cases of sexual abuse and molestation in the past four years at the state’s five developmental centers.

The loss of state certification in Sonoma means California taxpayers will lose tens of millions of dollars in federal funding that is dependent on assurances the facility is properly managed. Critically, it raises questions about how to care for hundreds of patients with cerebral palsy, mental retardation and severe autism if the center closes. Most of the patients at the Sonoma center are unable to live with their families or in group homes.

The state Department of Developmental Services is appealing the revocation, which was announced by state health officials who have regulatory control over the facility. The facility will remain operating during the appeal.

The state Department of Public Health moved to sanction the Sonoma center after it visited the facility in late November and early December and "documented incidents of abuse constituting immediate jeopardy, as well as actual serious threats to the physical safety of female clients in certain units."

Terri Delgadillo, director of the developmental services department, which has a budget of $4.5 billion, said state officials are acting to make changes.

“We are contacting our residents’ families to assure them of our continued commitment to making improvements,” Delgadillo said in a written statement. “We are moving quickly to fix this center and protect our residents.”

The department announced it was putting Frank Parrish, assistant chief of the California Highway Patrol, temporarily in charge of the Office of Protective Services’ unit at the Sonoma center. The highway patrol “is in the process of evaluating the issues to ensure the delivery of appropriate services," the department said in a release.

The move does not impact the detectives and patrol officers operating at the state’s other four developmental centers.

For some critics of the Office of Protective Services, installing new leadership with a strong law enforcement background is a welcome change. For decades, state officials have hired police chiefs with little or no experience investigating crimes.

“It’s a whole lot easier for someone who already knows how to do law enforcement, who knows how to be a good investigator, to learn the idiosyncrasies of working with that client base,” said Thomas Simms, a retired police chief and former California Department of Justice consultant who audited the Office of Protective Services in 2002. “You can’t take the in-house people ... and make them good investigators.”